Gary Gaines, immortalized in Buzz Bissinger's classic Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, and a Dream and portrayed onscreen by Billy Bob Thornton, died on Monday, his family announced. He was 73 years old.
Gaines played quarterback at Angelo State, then earned his first head coaching job at tiny Petersburg High School in the Texas Panhandle in 1977. He took three more jobs before landing at Odessa Permian in 1986, at the time two seasons removed from its fourth state championship.
Friday Night Lights followed Gaines and his Panthers through the 1988 season. Permian entered the season with state championship expectations, and those expectations weigh on Gaines. The book portrays Gaines as a quieter-than-one-might-expect coach who loves the game but could do without the rest of it.
The '88 season was an eventful one. Star running back Boobie Miles is lost for the season in the middle of the year, Permian loses a dramatic game to Midland Lee, makes the playoff via a coin flip, and then reaches the state semifinals, where they lose to eventual champion Dallas Carter. The coin flip, breaking a 3-way tie with Midland and Midland Lee, is on YouTube today.
Permian won state and a mythical national championship in 1989, and afterward Gaines took the linebackers job under Spike Dykes at Texas Tech.
He returned to high school football at Abilene in 1994, then moved to San Angelo Central in 1996. In 2000, Gaines spent the first of five seasons as the head coach at Abilene Christian University. After compiling a 21-30 record there, Gaines moved into high school administration before returning to Permian in 2009. (Though Permian would win a sixth title in 1991, the school has not claimed a regional championship since 1996.)
Gaines's return was emblematic of the shift in power in Texas high school football from the 1980s to the 2000s and 2010s. After going 46-7-1 in his first four seasons at Permian, he was 23-21 in his final four.
Overall, Gaines went 123-97-5 in 20 seasons at the high school level.
Crushed to hear this news, but know Coach Gaines is in a better place✝️.
— Colby Carthel (@CoachCarthel) August 23, 2022
He gave me my first job and I was blessed to coach with him for 5 years at ACU. One of the finest men I’ve ever known and had a monumental, lasting impact on my life. I love you, Coach Gaines. #RIP #Legend https://t.co/CgVnLLyJ19
He had an impact on so many of us who played or coached at Permian. He is a true Texas High School Football Legend! #MOJO https://t.co/3elcRkXVuJ
— Coach Faircloth (@Coachbfaircloth) August 23, 2022
Coach, you don’t know how much of an inspiration you were to me. I remember meeting you and thanking you for teaching me lessons on the field, that’s I can use in the real world. Thank you coach, for being someone I will always look up to. Love you! ❤️ GO MOJO https://t.co/e5bdRCkKqB
— Jonathan Campa (@Campa_2x) August 23, 2022